Five years ago, SRAM launched the original Red group. Considering the company’s relatively recent entry into road components, the group has been incredibly successful. Red has remained competitive on weight with recently released Campagnolo and Shimano groups, but SRAM’s revised group, revealed this week in Mallorca, Spain, ensures its status as the lightest top-end group.

The new Red remains at 10-speeds, even as Shimano plans to join Campagnolo with 11-speed groups. It’s 100 grams lighter than the original, quieter, more comfortable in your hands, performs better, and, says SRAM, more aerodynamic. (The parts have a sleeker look and minimized frontal area but SRAM has yet to do any wind-tunnel testing.)

Claimed weight for the new group is 1,739 grams, 369 lighter than Shimano’s claimed weight for its Dura-Ace Di2 group; 306 less than mechanical Dura-Ace; and 136 grams below Campagnolo Super Record. Of course, the weight savings come at a cost; new Red will sell for $2,575, about $275 more than the previous version. SRAM expects the group to hit shops as early as March.

The new Red shifters use the existing DoubleTap system—complete with its crisp feeling “zero loss” technology—but the levers are a completely new shape for improved ergonomics. The whole assembly is slimmer, and more comfortable. The transition from the bar to the lever hoods is also smoother. The bump at the tip of the hood, sometimes referred to as the horn, is taller and easier to grab. The rubber hood cover is now textured for improved grip too. The brake levers are longer and have a more exaggerated hook at the end.

New Red has no front derailleur trim, instead using just two positions, with one sweep of the lever initiating the move. SRAM achieved this with its new Yaw technology, which rotates the cage in line with the chain instead of the chainrings. This twisting motion eliminates rub when the chain is on either on chainrings.

The derailleur also makes smarter use of materials for the cage—aluminum for the outer plate and steel for the inner. Gone is the previous titanium cage that caused unreliable front shifting. The new changer comes with a chain catcher, an addition SRAM decided to include after realizing that nearly all of its sponsored teams were adding one for competition. The unobtrusive arm bolts to the threaded hole inside the main derailleur-mounting bolt. SRAM even includes laser etched alignment marks on the cage to simplify adjustments and setup.

The rear derailleur is 10-12 grams lighter than the previous version, and includes several refinements: The body is extended for better clearance over larger 28-tooth cogs; pulley wheels still spin on ceramic bearings and use a new tooth profiles for quieter interaction with the chain; the cable bolt is now titanium.

In May, SRAM will release a Red rear mech with its WiFLi technology. That component will use an 80mm mid-length cage to work with an 11-32T cassette. The standard Red derailleur can handle a maximum 28T cog.

The bottom brackets are unchanged, but the hollow Exogram carbon crank is all-new. Not only are the arms hollow, but the cavity extends to the spider arms too. SRAM claims this is its stiffest crank ever. It has five mounting bolts (130 BDC), though only four are visible, with the fifth hidden behind the crank arm. The fifth bolt enhances chainring support for better shifting.

Stiffer X-Glide chainrings feature new shift pin locations and are specifically designed to interface with the Yaw front derailleur. Chainring spacing is also slightly different with this new design, so the rings are only recommended for use with other components from the new Red group. The shifters’ cable pull is the same, but without the option to trim the front derailleur, drivetrain performance may suffer.

With SRAM’s recent acquisition of Quarq, you have the option of getting the crank with a built-in power meter, a lighter system than existing powermeters from Quarq. You can also add TT chainrings without recalibrating the unit.

SRAM borrowed heavily from its XX mountain bike cassette for the new rear cluster. The biggest eight cogs are machined from one piece of high-grade steel (as on the previous version), but engineers worked hard to eliminate the source of Red’s biggest complaint—noise. To quiet things down, they opened the back of the outermost aluminum cog, reducing its ability to amplify noise and making it lighter. In a first for any cassette, they placed elastomer rings between each cog further quiet things down. Because of new tooth profiles, the chain actually contacts the elastomer ring before the steel cog, dulling any noise that it would create. The elastomers are replaceable but don’t think about slapping them on your old cassette—the new Red cassette has deeper channels between the cogs for these bands.

And even though SRAM will offer a Red WiFLi rear derailleur, it won’t make a matching Red cassette, at least not yet. A Red-compatible 11-32 cassette already exists in the form of a XX off-road unit. It doesn’t have Red’s elastomer bands, but features additional weight saving machining. SRAM says it will evaluate demand, and may produce Red-level 11-32 cassettes in the future.

In a move away from the norm—dual-pivot brakes—the new Red brake is a single pivot design with an enhancement. This design, which uses an “AeroLink” arm to increase leverage, reduces the brake’s profile and frontal area while boosting brake power and modulation. A newly designed, four-position quick release is located at the barrel adjuster. Both the barrel adjuster and QR have a new grippy coating for easier adjustments. The brakes are wider, making them ready to accommodate wider rims—a current trend of which SRAM subsidiary Zipp has been at the forefront. We were also pleased to hear that the new brakes will accommodate tires as wide as 28mm.

SRAM concluded their product presentation with a teaser: Hydraulic rim and disc brakes for road bikes are in the works (available this fall). They showed us photos, but we’re not allowed to share them yet. Here are the key features:

We only rode 70k around Mallorca, but that was enough to form a solid first impression. The group is quiet. Rear shifts are stealthy compared to the existing group. Chain noise has been reduced, too: Those clunks and clanks you’re used to hearing with every rear shift is gone. Now, the shifter’s click seems a lot louder—but only because everything else is so quiet.

Front shifting—an occasional Achilles’ heel with previous Red groups—is positive and clean. It may not rival electronic shifting, but it’s by far the best mechanical front shift we’ve ever experienced. A long climb gave us the chance to try some nasty front shifts under power in an attempt to make something bad happen; nothing did. The derailleur just moved the chain. Rear shift action doesn’t really seem any different from current Red’s already-impressive performance.

The brakes are a huge improvement; there’s plenty of power with great modulation. We rode on carbon rims with a new SwissStop silver pad compound, making us wonder how the pads will fare on aluminum rims. But, so far, we’re impressed and reminded of the impressive power and modulation of Dura-Ace brakes.

Lever ergonomics are better too. The shape seems to be a cross between old Red and the current Dura-Ace. The textured hood surface felt great on our hands, even without gloves It felt like there might be added room for the fingers under the hood, but we need more rides back-to-back with the old group to be sure. Lever placement felt great in the drops and on the hoods, and reach adjustment will help any rider feel comfortable.

Overall, we are very pleased with the new group. Did we wish there were 11 speeds out back? Not today. As far as we can tell, Red improved in the areas it needed most. Long-term testing will reveal how much the group really weighs, performs, and stacks up against the competition.